The New Zealand Invitational is a Powerlifting event hosted by the Auckland Powerlifting Association designed specifically to showcase New Zealand's top IPF lifters in head-to-head competition across numerous weight classes. The competition will be taking place on Sunday 22 March at Trusts Arena in Henderson, West Auckland during the LiveFit Expo.
The NZ Invitational (NZI for short) is a direct replacement for New Zealand Record Breakers, a competition where top NZPF were invited to break age and weight class records. While this event was successful, it lacked the head-to-head matchups that make Powerlifting especially exciting. The NZ Invitational takes the best parts about Record Breakers and adds an element of close competition to create something Powerlifting enthusiasts will be thrilled to watch.
Here's your guide to the first-ever New Zealand Powerlifting Invitational.
The Schedule
Lifting will commence at 11am on Sunday March 22
Flight A: All Women
Flight B: All Men
Scoring & Weight Classes
The NZ Invitational format is similar to other top level IPF Competitions, such as the Sheffield Championships and the NIPF Arnold Classic Gran Prix. Lifters compete against eachother using IPF Points, rather than total.
IPF Points are the IPFs way of determining who is the best lifter, regardless of weight class. While this formula is good it certainly has some draw backs when comparing light weight lifters to heavier lifters. To combat this, the NZ Invitational splits the competition into 4 weight categories where lifters will competing to best each other on IPF points.
Women
63kg & Under
63.01kg & Over
Men
93kg & Under
93.01kg & Over
Lifters can still break National records in the normal IPF weight classes and can also use this event as a qualifier for the national championships in October this year.
Lifters coaches & handlers will need to be on their A-game with an IPF Points Calculator at the ready to ensure their lifter misses no opportunities!
The Athletes
24 athletes in total were selected, 6 within each previously mentioned weight class. The athletes have been selected based on their rankings in the previously mentioned weight classes during the 2019 calendar year within NZPF.
On top of this, a small amount of space was available for lifters who were to take part in the Asia/Pacific Championships in Taiwan, that met the previously mentioned criteria, bringing the total roster to 25 athletes.
You can find out more about the lifters at OpenIpf.org
Where can you watch the NZI?
If you’re in Auckland, you can watch live at Trusts Arena, Henderson.
If you’re from anywhere else in the world you can watch live on the Auckland Powerlifting Association YouTube channel HERE.
What can you expect to see at the NZI?
Aside from the obvious (Some of New Zealand's strongest lifters crushing some serious weight), you’re also likely to see numerous New Zealand records broken, quite possibly including multiple women bench pressing 100kg, deadlifting near 200kg, numerous 300kg squats and possibly even a 400kg deadlift.
We hope the NZ Invitational becomes a highly contested, prestigious event in years to come and we can't wait to see how it goes! If you can't make it, make sure you're watching the live stream on the APA Youtube Channel.
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